Classes

Course Description

Since its establishment during the antebellum era in the slave narrative, autobiography has been a foundational genre in African American literary and cultural history. Fifty years after the 1966 founding of the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense in Oakland, California, we will examine the development of this genre and draw on it as a lens to think about one of the most important and controversial political and activist movements in the nation's history. We will draw on key studies in history and cultural analysis related to the movement as a backdrop for exploring Black Panther autobiographies, including works by Huey P. Newton, Bobby Seale, David Hilliard, George Jackson, Elaine Brown, Angela Davis, Eldridge Cleaver and Assata Shakur, among others. Concomitantly, we will examine writings by a new generation of Black Panther authors, from Mary Williams, the adopted daughter of Jane Fonda to Ericka Brown, the daughter of Elaine Brown, with whom we will dialogue in a session about her "Black Panther Princess" project. We will examine the complex and sometimes forgotten origins of the Black Panther Party as a political movement in the U.S. South. We will examine the impact of prison literature as a genre on the development of this body of autobiographical work. Finally, we will examine the impact of the body of Black Panther autobiography on film. The autobiographical literature of this movement is also a valuable resource to learn about in light of contemporary movements that reflect on relationships between communities and strategies of policing.